Previous Seasons at the DCR’s Hatch Shell

2017 Season

July 19, 2017 at 7:00pmMusic for a Summer Evening (Opening Night)

Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Samuel Barber’s setting of a prose poem by James Agee, evokes sweetly nostalgic childhood memories of summer. Elgar created his Enigma Variations as a musical gift for his wife and closest friends. With exuberance, humor, and warmth, he presents a separate variation—akin to a musical portrait—for each of them. Boston composer Peggy Stuart Coolidge composed The Blue Planet to accompany a poem written by her husband. In 1971, the World Wildlife Fund adopted it as their official theme song.

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July 26, 2017 at 7:00pmMercury Orchestra: Symphonic Opera

Channing Yu and his Mercury Orchestra have thrilled Boston area audiences every summer for a decade. Through skill, devotion, and truly ambitious repertoire some of the most talented amateur musicians in the region come together each year to deliver invariably memorable performances. This summer for the first time, they appear on the Esplanade as guests of the Boston Landmarks Orchestra.

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The drama of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony—a journey from darkness to light—is one of the glories of Western art. Beethoven believed in music’s power to redeem a suffering humanity, to bring us closer to heaven in this life. His music to Goethe’s play, Egmont, came at the apex of his “Heroic Period.” The story honors the sacrifice of a nobleman condemned to death for resisting tyranny. The sublime Romance in F for solo violin and orchestra is among Beethoven’s most sweetly lyrical instrumental works.Boston Landmarks Orchestra | Christopher Wilkins, conductorAdrian Anantawan, violinMichelle Johnson, sopranoEmily Marvosh, contraltoWilliam Hite, tenorRon Williams, baritoneOne City ChoirBack Bay Chorale, Scott Allen Jarrett, Music DirectorAmerican Sign Language (ASL) Team: Adrianna Neefus, Jessica Palmariello

Ludwig van Beethoven Turkish March from The Ruins of AthensBeethoven Violin Romance in FBeethovenIncidental music to Goethe’s Egmont
Beethoven Symphony No. 9

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August 9, 2017 at 7:00pmAnthems of the World

Fired by local pride, some of Western music’s most passionate works are closely identified with their cultures of origin. At its premiere, Finlandia was heard to symbolize Finnish independence. It is now considered a second Finnish national anthem. Dvořák urged American composers to borrow from the spirituals, much as he had employed Czech folk songs in his own writing. Márquez’s Danzón No. 2 has become one of the most popular of all orchestral dances. The young musicians of ZUMIX are featured in a Landmarks-commissioned work they have created with composer Gonzalo Grau.Boston Landmarks Orchestra | Christopher Wilkins, conductorZUMIXBoston String Academy, Marielisa Alvarez, Mariesther Alvarez, Taide Prieto, Co-Directors
American Sign Language (ASL) Team: Elbert Joseph, Sarah Adams, Adrianna Neefus

*Prior to the concert, we will host an Instrument Playground on the Esplanade where youth can explore different instruments and make their own music! The Instrument Playground starts at 6:00 pm.

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August 16, 2017 at 7:00pmLongwood Symphony Orchestra: A Night in Vienna

Boston’s medical community orchestra has been a leader in innovative programming and community engagement for thirty-five years. Recognizing that music is at its essence a healing art, the Longwood Symphony serves the Greater Boston area through performances and programming related to the services these musicians provide in their medical professions. Music Director Ronald Feldman conducts.

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August 23, 2017 at 7:00pmLandmarks Dance Carnival

“Music to move by” from many cultures features dancers from across the city. Composer and drummer Ryan Edwards teams up with Apostolos Paraskevas to create a new work for young drummers and dancers from Camp Harbor View and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston. The evening culminates in a grand performance of Copland’s Rodeo with choreography by Peter DiMuro. It will be hard for anyone to sit still for this season finale. But at Boston Landmarks Orchestra concerts, that’s perfectly okay. Rain Date: August 24 at Hatch Shell.

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Neighborhood Concerts and Educational Programs

Tuesday, June 13, 2017 at 12:15pmHarvard Business School, North Allston

Free Lunchtime Concert

The Landmarks Brass Quintet will play outdoors for a free, lunchtime recital at Harvard Business School, Boston, MA 02163.

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Sunday, August 6, 2017 at 6:00pmPinebank Promontory, Jamaica Plain

Free Family Concert

The Landmarks Orchestra’s annual performance at the beautiful
Pinebank Promontory, adjacent to Jamaica Pond, presented in partnership with the City of Boston Parks and Recreation Department and the Emerald Necklace Conservancy. This event will also include a musical instrument playground.

Location: Rose Kennedy Greenway (In the portion of the park between Oliver Street & Pearl Street and also bounded by Atlantic Avenue).

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2016 Season

July 13, 2016 at 7:00pmOpening Night: Rhapsody in Green

Music of the wilds and the countryside. Tan Dun’s Secret of Wind and Birds mimics sounds and colors found in nature, incorporating birdsong activated by audience members on their cell phones. Michael Gandolfi’s tribute to a garden in Scotland follows a tradition first established by Respighi, who introduced recorded birdsong into concert music in 1924 with his brilliant Pines of Rome.

In partnership with Conservatory Lab Charter School; Boston University Tanglewood Institute; Mass Audubon; and The Garden of Cosmic Speculation, Scotland.

Ralph Vaughan Williams The Wasps OvertureTan DunSecret of Wind and BirdsAaron Copland Music for MoviesMichael Gandolfi The Garden of Cosmic Speculation – Part IOttorino RespighiThe Pines of Rome

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July 20, 2016 at 7:00pmPictures at an Exhibition

Peggy Fogelman, Director of the Gardner Museum, co-hosts an evening honoring the life and passions of Isabella Stewart Gardner. Highlights from the museum’s collection and images from the Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA—projected above the orchestra—are shown in coordination with the music. Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition is performed in Ravel’s masterful orchestration.

In partnership with the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Co-hosted by Peggy Fogelman, director

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July 27, 2016 at 7:00pmVerdi & Valkyries

One of the greatest dramatic singers of her generation, Jane Eaglen, soprano, headlines a powerhouse program. Highlights from Wagner’s Ring include The Ride of the Valkyries and the dramatic final scene of the cycle. The stirring Anvil Chorus precedes the New England premiere of a major work by Verdi, Libera me, a work which five years later he transformed into the dramatic conclusion of the Requiem.

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August 3, 2016Special Film Screening: On the Town

This evening we give the orchestra a well-deserved night off, and screen the classic 1949 movie musical On the Town, starring Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, and Ann Miller. The film is based on the 1944 Broadway musical by Leonard Bernstein, which in turn is based on his ballet Fancy Free—which the Landmarks Orchestra performs on August 17. Hit songs such as ‘New York, New York’ and Kelly’s iconic dancing are among the highlights. Pack your picnic for an old school Hollywood musical film under the stars.

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An open-air festival of sundry styles and celebrated classics. Musical treats from Gershwin to Adams to Grieg accompany the great Fifth Symphony of Tchaikovsky. All-Stars from East Boston’s ZUMIX unveil their new pop-inspired creation. The night comes to a fitting close in collaboration with the Boston Area Brigade of Activist Musicians (BABAM!).

*Due to severe weather in the forecast on August 10th, this concert has been rescheduled to Thursday, August 11th at the DCR’s Hatch Shell.

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August 17, 2016 at 7:00pmFootloose and Fancy Free

Movers and shakers from across the city converge on the Esplanade for a celebration of American and international dance. Leonard Bernstein’s Fancy Free takes pride of place in an original interpretation by Yo-El Cassell and Boston-based performers. Youth from area Boys and Girls Clubs will “shake the Shell” along with outstanding companies of Armenian and Latin America dancers.

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August 24, 2016 at 7:00pmLongwood Symphony Orchestra

The annual performance at the Hatch Shell by Boston’s medical community orchestra, always an innovator in programming and community engagement. Promoting music as a healing art, the Longwood Symphony serves the Greater Boston area through performances and programming related to their professions.

August 31, 2016 at 7:00pmRodgers and Hart’s The Boys from Syracuse

A landmark Broadway musical from the swing era is reborn on the Esplanade. The Boys from Syracuse, based on Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors, is often considered the finest of all Rodgers and Hart creations. Familiar songs include ‘Falling in Love with Love,’ ‘Sing for Your Supper,’ and ‘This Can’t Be Love.’ This ‘concert performance with dancing’ marks only the 2nd professional performance of the inimitable big-band style original 1938 orchestrations.

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Neighborhood Concerts and Educational Programs

Sunday, July 10, 2016 at 6:00pmPinebank Promontory, Jamaica Plain

Free Family Concert

Boston Landmarks Orchestra Brass Ensemblewith Robert Schulz, drums

The Landmarks Orchestra’s annual performance at the beautiful
Pinebank Promontory, adjacent to Jamaica Pond, presented in partnership with the City of Boston Parks and Recreation Department and the Emerald Necklace Conservancy. This event will also include a musical instrument playground.

The Boston Landmarks Orchestra is proud to participate in Highland Street’s Free Fun Fridays program for the second consecutive year. This year’s performance takes place at the Institute for Contemporary Art/Boston outside by the grandstand overlooking Boston Harbor.

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2015 Season

July 15, 2015 at 7:00pm at Emmanuel ChurchOpening Night: Rhapsody in Green

Mysteries of the sea resonate in Debussy’s La Mer and Hovhaness’s And God Created Great Whales, a work featuring actual whale songs provided by the New England Aquarium. Hometown favorite Jayne West performs Berklee Professor Francine Trester’s gorgeous new setting of At the River. Pulitzer Prize winning composer Kevin Puts’s miniature tone poem River’s Rush flows with melodic waves and whirling orchestral color.

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Salsa meets symphony as Alex Alvear’s “pocket-sized salsa orchestra” heats up the Esplanade again this summer. From mambo to merengue, the spirit of dance permeates an evening of Latin symphonic music. Boston’s leading performers of Latin jazz are joined by the folkloric dancers of BAJUCOL and the gifted young musicians of the Conservatory Lab Charter School.

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July 29, 2015 at 7:00pmLongwood Symphony Orchestra: A Night at the Ballet (rain location: Church of the Covenant, 67 Newbury St, Boston)

Ronald Feldman, music director

The annual performance at the Hatch Shell by Boston’s medical community orchestra, always an innovator in programming and community engagement. This year’s program “A Night at the Ballet” features familiar ballet music including Offenbach’s delightful “Can-can” from Orphée aux enfers. Music Director Ronald Feldman conducts.

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August 5, 2015 at 7:00pm (rain date: Thursday, August 6 at 7:00pm)Italian Night

The Golden Age of Italian opera is about passion writ large. Its music now occupies a central place on the concert stages of the world. The thrilling voices of two stars of American opera join a coalition of outstanding Boston-area choruses. One of Fellini’s greatest films luxuriates in the festive and lyrical music of Nino Rota—who later composed music for The Godfather and musicians from the famous Honk! festival of activist street bands..

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Brazilian pianist, vocalist, and Music Alive: New Partnerships Composer-in-Residence Clarice Assad creates a joyful collaboration with neighborhood ensembles in music inspired by folk dance, storytelling and memories of childhood. Sheherazade, the vibrant symphonic poem based on One Thousand and One Nights is the well-loved creation of Rimsky-Korsakov who, as a Russian naval officer, once set anchor in Rio de Janeiro.

The Residency of Clarice Assad is made possible through Music Alive: New Partnerships, a residency program of New Music USA and the League of American Orchestras. This national program is designed to establish new relationships between composers and orchestras, and to help orchestras present new music to the public and build support for new music within their institutions. Leadership funding for Music Alive is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from The Aaron Copland Fund for Music and The ASCAP Foundation Bart Howard Fund.

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August 19, 2015 at 7:00pm (rain date: Thursday, August 20 at 7:00pm)Drums Along the Charles

The Esplanade resounds with rhythms and dances of many ages and cultures. The Swordfishers features replicas of ancient stone instruments fashioned by a New England culture that thrived thousands of years ago. The Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists marks the orchestra’s first performance of music by Philip Glass, one of America’s most influential composers. Rachmaninoff’s final work—the brilliant and rhapsodic Symphonic Dances—caps the night.

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August 26, 2015 at 7:00pm (rain date: Thursday, August 27 at 7:00pm)Boston Landmarks Orchestra and Commonwealth Shakespeare Company present:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
A FULLY STAGED PRODUCTION

Stage and musical stars of Boston collaborate in the most celebrated of all musical scores written for a classic play. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the most renowned, the most successful, and the most perfect incidental music in history. The famed Wedding March signals the story’s happy ending even though “the course of true love never did run smooth.”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream a fully staged production
Music by Felix Mendelssohn
Play by William Shakespeare

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Boston Landmarks Orchestra pays tribute to visual artist, social justice activist, philanthropist, and true renaissance woman Fay Chandler, who passed away on March 3, 2015. Our program features an eclectic collection of pieces and genres dear to Fay, including Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, film music from Lonesome Dove, music by Boston composer Larry Bell, and, fittingly, Joan Tower’s Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman.

Neighborhood Concerts and Educational Programs

Sunday, July 12, 2015 at 6:00pmPinebank Promontory, Jamaica Plain

Clarice Assad and Friends will join musicians from the Boston Landmarks Orchestra for a free concert next to Jamaica Pond. Music will include compositions by Ms. Assad and others combining Latin jazz, folk and popular styles with classical influences. The event, which is presented in partnership with the City of Boston Parks and Recreation Department and the Emerald Necklace Conservancy will also include a musical playground.

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Clarice Assad and Friends will join musicians from the Boston Landmarks Orchestra for a free concert at the JFK Library in Dorchester on August 14 as part of The Highland Street Foundation’s Free Fun Fridays initiative.

Thanks in part to a grant from The League of American Orchestras and New Music USA, Clarice Assad will be in Boston for residencies with the Landmarks Orchestra in July and August. She will lead interactive workshops at Camp Harbor View, Grooversity, and ZUMIX. Young performers from these groups will join her and the Landmarks Orchestra for the concert at the Hatch Shell on August 12. The event will also include a musical playground

O’er the Land of the Free: Bicentennial of The Star-Spangled BannerWednesday, August 27, 2014
in partnership with the 1812 Marine Guard for the USS CONSTITUTION, the USS CONSTITUTION Museum, and the 25th Marine Regiment
One City Chamber Choir
William Lyman, narrator